


Did You Know That I Wanted To Live With You?

by Ourfandomcrazyuniverse



Category: Starkid, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid, tgwdlm - Fandom
Genre: Alice Bill Paul and Melissa all have anxiety which is basically canon anyways look at the bbs, Alice thinks Emma is a world saving icon and also her aunty, Does bill basically become a father figure for Deb too??!?, Other, So maybe some ouch sad when it comes to airing things out, Some sad bc poor Alice remembers apocalypse like all do, alice and Bill are v innocent soft ppl and they need a happy ending, but mostly them living good lives bc it’s what those good beans deserve!, lots of just them being happy or saying things that need to be said
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-12
Updated: 2019-09-12
Packaged: 2020-10-17 04:56:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20615339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ourfandomcrazyuniverse/pseuds/Ourfandomcrazyuniverse
Summary: A couple of snippets into Bill and Alices life after the Hatchetfield disaster, how they live their lives after things that ‘Not Your Seed’ exposed and they have some talks.Mostly happy endings they deserve in this here fic y’allAlso Bill And Alice don’t have a last name yet so I’m calling them the Lake family just because I thought it was nice and suited them for some reason??Also Greenpeace girl is called Blaire in this bc that’s what I imagine her name as, plus she needs a name, she’s a good part! Whenever either of them comes up in fics and needs to be addressed by (last)name this is probably what i’ll call them, unless we’re told what their actual (last)names is at some point





	Did You Know That I Wanted To Live With You?

Alice woke up to someone lightly shaking her, something she hadn’t felt since she was like 11 years old, looking up to see her father was the culprit made her feel like she _was_ that young again. She started to peel open her eyes properly, a bit confused, it’s not like she could be late to school or anything.

“Alice sweetie?” He backed up when she opened her eyes wanting to give her her space. He fiddled with his hands nervously, ducking under the fairy lights that surrounded her bed. “I tried calling you a dozen times hun, c’mon you’re going to be late for testing today, it’s Helen Schaffer on duty, she’s the one you like isn’t she? And Deb’s on the house phone, since you wouldn’t answer your mobile.” He held the phone gingerly out to her, she was still groggy but took it. 

“Thanks dad, I’ll be in the shower in like 10.”

“Okay sweetie” he smiled as he backed out of door and closed it quietly for her.

She looked to the phone slightly bewildered in her sleepy state but Deb’s voice gave her all this energy.

“Alice? Hey are you okay? Your dad said you were asleep?”

“Yeah yeah I was, I’ve just been tried.” Alice stretched and tiptoed to the window peeking out through the pink curtains she said she hadn’t had the chance to change since she was little, but still secretly adored. She blinked as if she couldn’t believe it was 11 when she saw her clock. “Oh wow that is late.”

“Yeah well some people don’t have to go to school, so they can live the life of luxury.” Deb snorted on the other end, teasing lightly. 

They’d just started school up today in Hatchetfield, except Alice didn’t go to school in Hatchetfield, not for years now. PEIP didn’t think she would have to wait much longer before she could go back to Clivesdale, as she got special consideration under the quarantine, being a minor with her parent outside of Hatchetfield. Which just gave Alice more time to think over what she’d been mulling since her infection brought out all her issues she’d been completely avoiding for years before. So for now she wasn’t in school, just hanging out with Deb and her dad. She guessed it’d be mainly her dad now Deb had started back up at school, unless she skived a considerable amount, but even her dad’s job started back up in a week so she was gonna be lonely for a little while. 

“How is your first day going by the way?” Alice asked politely, twirling her hair since Deb couldn’t see her and make her go all red faced about it.

“Fuckin sucks.” She laughed on the other end. 

Alice giggled back. “You’ve only had like what, two periods by now?” She lightly poked fun at her.

“Yeah but the first hour was taken up by some dumb speech about starting back up and how everything would be the same as usual, which is bullshit. Nothing’s gonna be the same again.”

Alice slightly bristled at that, but brought her attention back to what Deb was saying quick enough.  
“-because then we had P.E. first thing in the morning which sucks total ass anyway but it was just cross county! Literally running across the field for an hour! You know PEIP took all our sports equipment? Apart from like the foam stuff, they were saying in the speech ‘just in case anyone is not as clean as we thought’ like what utter bullshit! No one’s been violent because of that crap since the meteor blew up!”

Alice started daydreaming. She’d heard afterwards, like everyone else in town, that this woman, who was now somehow uncle Paul’s girlfriend, was the last survivor and all by herself, injured, travelled back to Hatchetfield after escaping in the first place and blew up the meteor, even with the entire town possessed and trying to stop her, and saved every man woman and child in not just Hatchetfield but really the world! And her dad had been surviving together with her for a bit! That was so cool. Alice felt Emma should have a massive statue in her honour! Or at least be remembered in the history books, but PEIP wanted to keep it quiet, they wanted people to forget. And she guessed the massive land with her dream job, whatever that was, her dad hadn’t specified yet, that was waiting for her as soon as the island was un-quarantined was a pretty good reward anyway. That was baddass, but the victory was really the only thing Alice liked to remember about the near-apocalypse. Because every other part of that two weeks had been her own waking nightmare, and she remembered it all.

She remembered Deb attacking her, clawing to force her way on top of Alice as she screamed and beg for her to stop, watching in horror as Deb’s usually soft hands forced her mouth open and Debs lips leaned down not to kiss her but to gag disgustingly over her and throw up into her mouth, Alice wanted to throw up herself, for about two seconds, until she felt ‘on top of the world’. But they weren’t her emotions, she was just a passenger in her body.  
She remembered that horrible song. Every lyric, every chord, every small dance move.  
The army coming and almost shooting her, she could still feel the fear as she ran from them.  
She took a shot at her uncle. He looked absolutely terrified of her, he had only just a few seconds of mourning because of her, she had never seen him cry before and she kept trying to kill him, she wouldn’t do that! She loved him! He’d helped raise her!  
She just watched as Uncle Paul was trying to stop her dad from killing himself. She was stuck in place as her daddy held the gun up to his chin all because he thought she was dead, and she couldn’t run to him and stop him. But the worst part by far was what happened straight after. As she watched her body finally move to lean down, felt the weight of the gun in her arms, the thrust back as she fired and shot her dad, she had killed her dad...

“Hey Alice?” Debs voice grounded her, like it always did.

“Oh hey sorry, I just spaced out for a sec...”

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alice thought not having to go to school would be a blessing. She got to just chill, do whatever she wanted and she didn’t have to feel guilty about it. But she soon felt like she was missing out on doing something, being a part of something, having a schedule to adhere to and it made her anxiety skyrocket. But she was glad she was with her dad in the aftermath of the apocalypse, because that was probably the only thing that could make her anxiety worse. He revealed he had anxiety too when she told him in tears when she was 14, curling in lap and closest she’d been to him since starting teenagedom and he understood. Living together, even when it was only for a weekend in the old days, they had their little rituals and ways of making life easier, for themselves and each other, Alice was definitely less snappy to him at 14 then 13. Her mum was kind but... she didn’t understand it, her dad had always understood what she needed. And that’s why Alice has wanted to... well she shouldn’t feel weird about admitting it to herself now, since she was about to reveal it to her dad tonight.

Alice was supposed to tell him over dinner, but it just didn’t come out. Her mouth had stayed firmly clamped unless she was taking a bite of her food. She always at least had something to say to him, especially these past couple of months, they’d been closer than they had been in a while. It wasn’t like when she was six and clung to his hand literally wherever they went, but they worked with each other. They were good for each other. And she saw her dad was staring over their food, he even asked if she wanted to have Deb over for a board game night at some point this week. But scared she was gonna blurt it out without thinking she simply nodded and looked down. This had to be perfect. She was thankful she knew her dad would drop it, and wouldn’t shout at her for ‘being rude’ or ‘being too awkward’ because she wasn’t talking. That he’d just let her be for now.

It was when she offered to help him with the dishes that she spoke up.  
“Do you remember what I sang to you?”

She kinda blurted it out, just like she’d hooped not to and hardly spoke the start of her sentence and even though she seemed to have caught him off guard, he gave her a small smile as he turned to her.

“I remember all those times you sang to me. When you were three and were so proud because you’d remembered all the lyrics to twinkle twinkle on your own finally.” He looked up to the ceiling and Alice felt herself getting all soft, that was clearly a fond memory for him and one she couldn’t even remember.

His head turned to stare at the floor as he reminisced again. “When you were 8 and you said you were gonna be on American idol.”

Alice found herself smiling, even if she was filled with nerves at this point. Especially when he looked up to her and she knew they were about to finally talk.

“But that’s not what you mean, is it?”

It didn’t need an answer, but she shook her head anyway, piling the dishes she had been cradling in her arms into the sink and forgetting about them for now.

“How could I forget sweetie?” Bill was smiling but his voice was sad, everything about the hive was sad.

“Well it was true.” She finally said it. She waited for his reaction, a tad confused when it didn’t change from his nervous smile.

“Oh, which part?” Bill said calmly but all he was thinking was ‘Oh no, we’re finally going to have the conversion, about how I let her down’.

Then it occurred to Alice she hadn’t actually said which part of her lyrics she was talking about. It’s just all she’d been thinking about she kinda forgot he’d need context. she exhaled quietly, she was finally gonna say it, something she’d been wanting to say for years, way before the hive stuff. That... “That I wanted to live with you.”

Bills head snapped up to hers, his jaw slowly falling open.

“And if it’s not too much trouble I’d still like that.” She looked up to him and immediately bowed her head when she saw his frozen expression. All her worst fears were running through her head. ‘But my dad loves me’ she had to remind herself, trying to push through that horrible nagging voice in her head ‘he always wanted to spend more time with me than mom allowed’. She was pulled out of her thoughts when she caught him moving. She looked up, desperation in her eyes, for him to accept her.  
And he always did.  
He raised his arms and she raised hers back, they ran even though it only took two steps forward each, and she threw herself into his arms, he caught her. She readjusted her arms around his neck, so she wasn’t strangling him, but she was almost off her feet with how close he was pulling her.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry Alice, I- I should have fought for you, I thought you’d want your mother and I-“

“Ssssh sh.” She attempted to hush his cries, burying her face into his shoulder and letting herself really feel like his little girl again. “Dad...” it came out as a whimper, her throat full of saliva as she sobbed, but they were happy tears, she was happy. It had been ages since she’d cried into his arms but it was the first time he’d cried into hers. They really were very similar. 

Alices life just improved tenfold after that. Her dad had ordered cake from their favourite bakery together, a treat they only had on celebrations and she hadn’t had in a long time, since she never got to spend moments like her birthdays with him. They both split the strawberry and white chocolate evenly, it was both their favourite, except she saw him trying to pile extra strawberries onto her paper plate.

She called Deb in bed as soon as she’d said goodnight to her dad. She didn’t care that it wasn’t finalised, that her dad had warned her her mother may try to stop it. She’d stay with her dad no matter what.  
“Debby!” She only used that name when she was very excited, and it was the only way Deb would I accept it too. “I did it! I asked dad and he said yes! I mean of course he would he’s really that great even if I don’t say it as often as I need to but he wants me to stay! I can stay!”  
Deb celebrated over the phone with her, and told her her wine she was downing as they spoke was a cheers for both of them, and Alices excitement was only fuelled by Deb’s eagerness for her. “I really love you. So much Deb.” She bit her lip as she said it, but her whole body was shaking with happiness. She didn’t even know that could happen!

“I love you too babe and I’m really fuckin happy for you! I wanna hug your dad for ya!”

Alice laughed until she was in tears over the phone, her giddiness meaning she didn’t care if she was keeping the neighbours up, or the whole of Hatchetfield, this was a spectacular day!

She called her mom, even though she felt awful. She still loved her mom! But she explained it as she felt she never spent any time with her dad and that after everything... she just wanted to be with him. She didn’t wanna break her heart with the truth. She squealed and jumped on her feet when her dad suggested she go spend the night at Debs the following night he was going to talk to her mother about arrangements. He knew Alice didn’t want to hear all that arguing, and Alice knew she’d probably have a million panic attacks if she had to listen to it too. But, Bill had one catch. “We have to have a ‘talk’ before you go or I’m going to ask Paul if he can take care of you tonight.”

Alice obviously agreed. Although when it came to talking time, about an hour later because her dad said he needed to ‘find some things I’ve prepared’ she had a small pit of dread in her stomach. But she was on a double victory high! Plus this was a new step for her, her dad, and Deb’s relationship! She had to keep chanting that to herself as he took a seat opposite from her.

“Dad we did have this talk when I was like 10.” Alice quickly pointed out, hoping he’d simply forgotten and that she wouldn’t have to go through this again. 

Bill smiled reassuringly as he shuffled forward, although she could see the awkwardness behind his eyes, he couldn’t mask it that well. “Yes but there are some things I propbably didn’t tell you back then.” She was almost glad he was going to since school didn’t exactly teach her this stuff and there was no way she was googling it, but getting it from her dad still felt... 

“And if you want Deb to sleep over we have to have this talk, or I can get Charlotte or Emma to do it.” He suggested, as long as she was safe, he didn’t mind, they had to read through his notes though! He was thinking of how to ask them when Alice made up her mind, very quickly. 

“I think that might be even more embarrassing dad.” She mumbled, already starting to get red faced. She reminded herself what she was doing this for. But it’s not like she’d be doing all this stuff with Deb anyway. At least not for a little while...

“Okay so I know you two can’t get pregnant but there are still ways you can catch sti’s.”

Okay, this was standard. This Alice could deal with.

“Now, have you heard of ‘air embolisms’?” She watched him bring up sheets of paper as thick as a tv script and her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. ”O-KAY I change my mind!” He voice broke, standing up alertly. “Get uncle Paul’s girlfriend in here please!”

~~~~~~~

Deb still looked like she didn’t believe what Alice had texted her when she showed up to their front door. She opened her arms for Alice when she came barrelling down the stairs with her overnight bag, but she was still in a state of shock. Bill smiled tenderly as he walked down the stairs, Deb looked up to him and kept looking even as Alice backed up out of her arms, but Alice was positively beaming as she looked between the two of them so Deb hoped this wasn’t some sort of test. 

“Now Deb,” Bill started and Alice was already rolling her eyes, but in more of a playful way than anything. Deb looked back to Bill, nodding to show she was giving him her full attention. Which was hard when you were kinda stoned already, that might have also been why she was a little more freaked when she got the text from Alice this afternoon.

“I want to make sure you’re looking after my daughter tonight, making sure she’s A-Okay, like I know you will.” Bill even patted his hand down on Debs shoulder twice, in a friendly manner. He trusted her more since the apocalypse, she’d been a rock for Alice and he was thankful for that, he was grateful for her. Even if he still didn’t like the weed thing. 

“You’ve got nothing to worry about Mr. Lake!” Deb put her arm around Alices shoulders and Alice leaned her head down onto Deb’s, to show they were good for each other, and that Alice was very happy with this arrangement. “I’ll take good care of her.” Alice lifted her head to snort at Deb, they were being so traditional. She guessed it was the first barrier they had to break down though. Her dad still looked a bit awkward as he gave them bus money. 

“Oh no, sir, that’s okay I walked here anyway.” Deb tried, holding her hands out in front of her and shaking them. She didn’t want to bite to more than she could chew when he was starting to trust her. 

“Oh no, first of all there’s no need to call me sir Deb! And it’s already dark I don’t want you two walking home! I’d drop you off myself if I had the time.” Bill explained, looking to his watch and immediately throwing his head the other way, like he could pretend he hadn’t seen it and it wasn’t actually that time already. Alice heard her parents set up the time to call, she had begged Deb not to be late today. And to ease the tensions she took the money from her dads hands and stuffed it into her cardigan pocket. “Thanks dad.” She leaned up on her toes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek. She loved him so much right now and she had to show it, most of the residents of Hatchetfield had been showing and telling each other how much they cared since they all almost died and no one wanted to leave things unsaid after that. 

Bill raised his hand to his cheek, fondly rubbing over it before smiling down at his daughter who was basically all grown up. “Text me what time you want me to pick you up tomorrow.” He told her before walking them to the bus stop at the end of the street.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was just gone midnight and Alice couldn’t stay up anymore, so Deb closed their film and suggested they get ready for bed. Alice was very excited as she curled up under Debs covers, telling her that she met THE Emma and kinda bragging The Hatchetfield Hero was basically her aunty and that her dad had invited her and her uncle over for dinner. Deb was pretty impressed at first till she just started teasing Alice for being all high and mighty about it, Alice batted Deb’s waggling fingers away with a giggle. “Yeah so dad was determined to have this talk, but she taught me things I bet dad didn’t know, that I didn’t even know.” With the implications hanging in the air she looked behind her to where Deb was clinging to her back and just listening interestedly and then she hid behind hair embarrassed for a moment. Deb caught on. “Yeah, like, we don’t even need that kinda talk.” Alice gripped Deb’s arm, which was already not moving, around her middle, tighter, burying her face into Deb’s pillow which just smelt of her, tugging on Deb’s pyjamas since she’d ‘forgot’ hers at home. She felt so naughty as Deb laughed at her for forgetting the basic thing you need for sleepovers, but Deb’s top was so comforting.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Luckily Bill’s talk went well. It was a month later and they’d gotten all the paperwork sorted out and Alice had moved to school with Deb! Which seemed exciting at first till she remembered she had to go to school now, but it was a lot more interesting when she had Deb to talk to during it.

Bill was more relaxed about sleepovers, he still was not fully okay with the weed thing, as he kept mentioning in passing, but he did trust Deb to look after Alice and knew she wasn’t the peer pressuring type, after spending more time with the two of them on outings. He saw that Deb really enjoyed going out with them and she had come up to him and apologised for her family not doing the same for Alice. This only made Bill want to take her out with them more. Alice even snapped a pic of them hugging it out over that moment. She was actually quite surprised when Deb told her late one night and pretty stoned that she’d started seeing Bill as the dad she wished she had.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bill was helping Paul figure out why both their printers weren’t working and how they could have both broken at the same time, when he got the intercom message. “Bill? Visitor coming up for you.” Melissa said cheerily. He looked to Paul confused, who could be coming here to see him? Paul shrugged back. “Hey man if you don’t know I won’t!” He held his hands up, before walking out the room. “Okay I need a break from this, I’m going to go down to Benaies, do you want anything?” 

Bill smiled and nudged Paul’s shoulder with his own. “I just saw you finish your coffee so I know that’s not why you’re going there.” He gave him a little teasing point and Paul cleared his throat. Bill chuckled. “I’m fine, you go, I’ll cover for you.”

Paul called out “Thanks Bill!” and he was already out the door. Bill just shook his head, ah, early love, only to be distracted by Paul’s grunt like he’d walked into someone.

“Hey Munchkin!”

“Hiya Uncle Paul!”

Bill smiled to himself, as he heard the sound of Paul’s effort like he was lifting her up and his daughters giggles, Paul always used to lift her into the air when he hugged her and now, that everyone decided they would be closer to their loved ones, he continued to. Bill stopped fiddling with the darn machine so he could listen more, a tad snoopy. 

“Is my dad in there?” He heard some rustling accompanying her words.

“Yeah, back there, I’m just going on a coffee run.”

“Oooooooh! Will there be any actual coffe involved?”

“Hey watch it, I was going to offer to get you something, but only if you stop teasing your poor uncle.”

Her beautiful laugh followed. “Nah that’s okay, I’m only popping in for a few minutes.”

Bill felt his smile slightly waver but on the other hand, she’d come all this way just to see him for that short a period of time. He was doing his own little dance so hard he’d missed their goodbyes and only just caught himself to make it look like he was still wrestling with the printer when she creaked the door open.

“Hey cupcake!” He beamed, and watched as she followed, walking over to where he was sitting and kissing him on the cheek, he still smiled ear to ear whenever she surprised him with that.

“Hi daddy! I brought you this.” She held out a brown paper bag that he knew had his lunch in, that he’d forgotten. She smiled, pleased with herself as he looked inside and huffed at himself. 

“I’m supposed to be the one taking care of you.” He pointed out. He checked his watch and it was nearly lunch time, he could afford to have a little snack, taking out his candy bar he always put in, this time a kit kat, and snapping it in half to give Alice a piece, she took it and popped it into her mouth without thinking.

“Yeah well I think this works good too.” She said as she munched, trying to cover her mouth.

“Works _well_.” Bill pointed out, before checking his watch one more time alarmed. “Speaking of English lessons shouldn’t you be in school right now Alison?!”

“It’s her free period.” 

Bill and Alice whipped their heads around, only to both smile as they realised it was Melissa who spoke. Alice moved from where she was holding the back of her dad’s chair to steal Paul’s, so Melissa could join the conversation. 

“I interrogated her before she came up.” Melissa nodded to Bill with a proud smile. He was about to thank her when Alice jumped in.

“I thought you said you were checking because ‘my dad _would_ notice and he _would_ kill me’.” She tilted her head to the side and slitted her eyes, a sly smile on her face, as if she was interrogating her now.

Melissa huffed. “Tomato, tomato, can’t I be friends for both of you?” She pondered.

And she was right. She was pretty much between Bill and Alices age and not only was she friends with Bill from work, but the amount of time Alice was spending at their work place and how weirdly they had a few similar traits, not to mention Melissa, Alice, Bill and Paul being in the anxiety club, she’d gotten to know her pretty well too. They looked after each other.

“I know I coach the junior softball team but I still think you should join one of the older classes! It could be fun! And it’s a great thing to put on college essays.” Melissa pointed out. She’d been trying to get Alice to play softball since she watched Emma accidentally toss a wet paper ball Ted had thrown into her hands across the room, in her panic as to what the squishy thing was and watched as Alice, in pure reflex alone, batted it into the trash can. 

But upon the mention of college Alice started to feel sick again. She still had no idea what she wanted to do, and there were SATs coming up when she was still catching up from joining a new school and missing months of education. But that wasn’t the main reason she was considering alternatives from college. She didn’t want to flee the nest just yet. She just got her dad back, she didn’t want to leave him.

“Is there something you came up here for Melissa?” Bill asked her, bringing Alice out of her thoughts. He wasn’t saying it in an impolite way of course, just genuinely wondering. 

Melissa nodded, readjusting her grip on her clipboard since she’d been distracted. “I came in to do counts for the coffe run.” She smiled.

“Paul’s already gone.” Bill informed her. Alice watched as Melissa rolled her eyes dramatically. 

“Of course he has.”

All three burst into a fit of giggles inside the small office.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bill sighed as he got home from work, putting his briefcase down and his cap on the hooks by the door. “Alice, sweetie?” He called out, even after a few months he still felt his heart burst knowing she’d be home whenever he got there. “I’m home!”

With no response he went looking for her, maybe he’d forgotten about some plans she had. But no, she was sitting on the couch. When she turned to him with fingers to lips and he saw her phone to her ear he understood. “Sorry.” He whispered, making some sweet tea for the two of them while he waited to ask how her day had been. 

By the time he came back with the two cups she was hanging up.

“Yes, thank you so much! Yes I hope so too. Goodbye, thank you!” She clicked her phone off and gently took the cup from his hands. “Thanks dad.” She commented, resting it on her legs.

Bill waited for his own to cool too. “Not that I’m not pleased with your manners sweetie, but who were ya talkin to? That wasn’t just a friend from school was it?” It certainly had sounded like she was acting very mature and formal. 

Alice beamed, jiggling her head in a little dance “It’s about my future.” She said, she knew her dad wished for her to have some sort of plan and Alice had finally figured out what she wanted.

Bill sat straight, now he was really paying attention. “Your future?” He placed his teacup down on the floor. “Oh Alice, honey, that’s wonderful! What have you chosen?” He leant forward, his chin resting in his hands.

“Well I thought we could talk about it over dinner.” She smiled, sipping on her tea, her dad made it way better than anyone else, even better than Emma, not that she’d admit that to the world saving barista.

“Are we celebrating? We should go out!” Bill proposed, already ready to grab his more causal jacket and his hat once more. 

Alice laughed into her hand slightly. “Well we’re not celebrating just yet, I’ve only just asked the people in charge of my future for first steps.” She explained. 

Bill hopped in. “Oh no we’re celebrating you making a decision honey! The fact you’ve started step one to go into that decision just is a bonus!” He teased her lightly. Alice found it funny though, although she quieted down as she told him where she’d been wanting to go for a while. “Well I thought we could do something together anyway since I’m going to moms for the weekend tomorrow, how about red lobster?”

Bill clapped his together excitedly. He and Alice hadn’t gone in so long! But then he remembered why. He asked, confused “But what about Deb? Is she not vegan anymore?”

Alice shook her head. “No. But I wanted to hang out just the two of us... I missed daddy daughter days.” Alice was a bit bashful when saying that, as most teens would be, but everyone was more open with how much they love the people they love and not wanting to waste any time, especially the Lake’s.

She quickly fanned over her dad when he almost started crying again.

“Jeez dad.” She started teasing him, even though her eyes were getting wet watching him. “I can invite Deb if you really want!”

~~~~~~~~~

It was the end of her final school year and Alice had a small graduation party at her house. Her dad had asked and she just wanted a few people in the garden or something. So there was tofu and hot dogs grilling as Alice clung to Debs arm as she went around saying hi to the few people coming. 

“So Alice, are you finally gonna tell us what you’re doing now you’re officially a graduate?” Paul asked, his arm around Emma’s shoulders as she held a glass of champagne. Champagne Alice was even allowed to have! It was her celebration after all, even though she’d told her dad she didn’t need any celebration. He’d wanted to, and she’d found something she could enjoy.

“Oh yeah, I guess that’s another reason dad wanted you all around.” She smiled, bouncing on her heels. She liked being surrounded by people she cared about and who cared about her.

“I’m getting a job!” She announced, squeaking a little. It all felt so grown up, and she’d got it first try. They said she was exactly the type of person they were looking for.

Paul smiled with an open mouth, interested And Emma gave a sort of woooh sound, making Alice feel even more proud, even though she’d tamed around Emma over time. Paul chimed in. “Oh wow, that’s great Alice.”

“Yeah! At Greenpeace!”

Paul’s smile only widnened. Really, widenend. “Oh. Greenpeace. Huh.”

All Alice heard in her excitement was ‘Oh! Greenpeace, huh?’  
“Yeah! Well after all this stuff I wanted to do something good for the world. And I’m starting off doing some volunteer work but then they want me in marketing to ‘the young audience’. Isn’t that so cool?!”

Emma elbowed Paul to make him speak. She knew of his ‘traumas’ but he had to speak up soon to be happy for this young girl who she knew really sought his approval. Paul blinked once and was back, a more natural smile on his face as he considered. “Yeah. Yeah you know what? That’s awesome. You go save the world Alice.” He placed his hand on her shoulder supportively. Literally just like her dad.

Alice beamed, rotating on her tiptoes. “Thanks! I’m starting tomorrow with a girl named Blaire?”

Now even Emma looked startled. Not that Alice noticed, she skipped away upon being beckoned by Deb.

Emma put her hand on Paul’s shoulder, helping him drop his own still wavering a little in air. “Relax. We’re happy for her!”

“B-BLAIRE?!”

“Yeah yeah I know, it’s okay big guy.”

The sun was setting and it was starting to get less appropriate for people to be outside for a barbecue, plus that didn’t even consider all the cleaning up that had to be done. So Alice pointed this out to her dad and nodded as he said he just had one last thing he had to do.

What she wasn’t expecting was for him to stand on his deck and ask for everyone, about 9 peoples, attention. Alice immediately got red faced, already knowing the type of thing that was about to be said.

“Sorry for taking up your time everyone, but before we leave there’s something I have to say, and unless I publicly embarrass her to stay there and listen Alice isn’t going to sit still long enough to let me say it.” That got a few laughs, and Alice burrowed her head into Deb’s shoulder, smiling lightly as Deb smirked down at her.

“Alice.”

She looked up, still resting her cheek there, happy when she felt Deb’s hand curl around hers for support.

“I’ve got so much I want to say to you...”

Alice felt a pit in her stomach...

“But I’m not gonna list them all in public.”

Thank god.

“We can’t keep our friends waiting till next summer.”

More laughs. Alice peeked her head up, she noticed the slight sweat from public speaking flaring up. But mostly was considering how her and her dad were looking to each other like no one else was outside with them.

“Alice, you’re my little girl, no matter you’re an adult, when you’re my age, when you’re 100! You’re going to still be that sweet baby I held in my arms for the first time who changed my life completely, for the absolute best.”

Alice felt herself get red faced, but not from embarrassment. 

Bill had this soft look, his eyebrows rising as he smiled. “And i am so, _so_proud of the woman you’ve become.”

There were more cheers, even Deb’s in her ear, but they didn’t matter to Alice.

“And I’m so happy that even through our hardships, we still have each other, and that even when you do flee the nest, we have all this time as a family and I wouldn’t give up a single... damn second of it.”

Alice nearly always used him hear the words ‘dang’ or ‘darn’ when he was around her, or just in general. She giggled lightly as he got more confident in himself. 

“So I want you to go out into that world with your diploma, but most importantly every single aspect that makes you you, your smile, your grace, your heart, and I want you to take the world by storm honey. But most importantly I want you to live the happiest life you can. And I know every single person here who loves you wants nothing more than that too.”

Alice subtly wiped her damp cheek on Debs collar. 

“Although they don’t love you as much as your dear old pops.”

There was more laughter now, but it was softer, not because it wasn’t funny but because no one wanted to ruin the moment. Especially now Bill was tearing up. 

“I love you cupcake.”

Alice let go of Debs hand and ran to the deck, Bill opening his arms wide for her. Alice buried herself into his shirt, sniffling. “I love you too daddy.” It was too quiet for anyone else to hear. But no one else mattered. Even as they all cheered for them. All that mattered right now to both Alice and Bill was each other.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this isn’t strictly Paulkins but I love Alice and Bill and I have a couple of fics for those guys. They deserve all the happiness. And I know this is like structured kinda differently too, I’m trying not to make every little thing a huge descriptive chapters worth of writing when it doesn’t need to be aha. Please let me know what you guys think, even just in general! Thanks for reading as always!!


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